As reflected in U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,893 (Hickey), U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,819 (Kofsky et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,603 (Morawetz et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,865 (Oman), U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,895 (Tannenbaum) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,896 (Westbrook), the therapeutic use of electricity is known. The devices disclosed in these patents typically include a power source, a control mechanism, and a pair of electrodes for connection to a subject. They all produce electrical pulses having selected characteristics for therapeutic purposes, e.g., to reduce pain (Morawetz et al.) or for treating edema, muscle spasms, and sprains (Westbrook).
Refinements of neuromuscular stimulating devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 32,091 (Stanton) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,146 (Alon). The Stanton device is a dual channel stimulator whereby simultaneous neuromuscular stimulation may be provided at two sites, and the Alon stimulator includes a plurality of interconnected electrical stimulation units each with at least a pair of electrodes whereby synchronous or asynchronous stimulation of a desired muscle or muscle group may be achieved.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,165 (Malaugh et al.) discloses a further refinement in the art of electrotherapy. The Malaugh et al. stimulation unit includes a high voltage pulsed current ("HVPC") electrotherapy stimulation device for providing short duration low ampere high voltage constant charge HVPC pulses to a patient to reduce pain and a neuromuscular stimulation ("NMS") electrotherapy device for providing constant current NMS pulses to a patient to re-educate and prevent atrophy of muscle tissue. A stated advantage of the Malaugh et al. unit is that it provides both HVPC and NMS electrotherapy from a single device.
While the preceding patents reveal advances in the art of electrotherapy and its use, none discloses or provides a neuromuscular stimulation device for the simultaneous reduction of pain and strengthening and re-educating of muscle, i.e., none discloses a device wherein neuromuscular and high voltage pulsed outputs are provided at the same time, and none discloses a device having an electrode configuration enabling the simultaneous providing of such electrotherapy.